Summer brings fun, but it also brings deadly days

Sunday

For many the weekend of Memorial Day is viewed as the unofficial start to summer. It’s the time people start looking forward to warmer days spent doing fun outdoor activities with friends and family.

But that weekend also serves a the kick-off to a what can be viewed by some as a more serious time known as the 100 deadliest days of summer.

The time period between Memorial Day and Labor Day earned the grime name, because it’s the period when most states report the most teen-related traffic fatalities.

"Crashes for teen drivers increase significantly during the summer because teens are out of school and driving more. Over the past five years during the "100 Deadliest Days": An average of almost 700 people died each year in crashes involving teen drivers," according the American Automobile Association (AAA).

In 2019, the Ohio State Highway Patrol responded to 42 traffic accidents that involved teen drivers between June 1 and Octt. 1, and distracted driving was a contributing in the majority of them.

Appleman also noted that most of the teen-related crashes occur on Fridays at around 3 p.m.

"We have been pretty aggressive with juvenile traffic offenders. You get a ticket as a juvenile, you can lose your license for it," Appleman said. "Changing the behavior is what we are really focusing on."

Appleman noted that crashes so far this year has been lower than normal, but there is currently less traffic on the road.

"My concern with that is we have teens who have not been driving," Appleman said. "So we are going to be very visible and as far as being aggressive with them, we want to change the behavior. We want them to understand, here we are not just giving you a fine."

Appleman explained that juvenile traffic fines are different. An adult gets a fine, they can go to court and contest it or just pay the fine. But with juveniles, if they get a ticket, they will appear before a juvenile judge.

"They look at your school, they look at everything. They don’t want to put the financial burden on them, but they want them to understand the seriousness of the situation," Appleman said.

According to Appleman, during the 100 deadliest days of summer, the patrol always sees an increase in the amount of traffic due to kids being out of school.

"This is going to be an interesting year. We don’t know what this is going to look like," Appleman said. "With Memorial Day coming, is it going to be a low traffic kind of year or is it going to be your traditional Memorial Day weekend, which is the first summer holiday with a massive increase in traffic. We don’t know what this is going to look like, but we are staffing the same as we do every holiday reporting period. We are going to be out doing our job and we are going to be definitely looking for violations. We don’t the any fatalities at all."

When asked what her recommendations for teen drivers are as this deadly period apprpaches, Appleman said "My recommendations for them is to remember that their decisions that they make now will affect them for the rest of their lives. So they need to make smart decisions and really pay attention to the laws because with every uncertain thing around us right now the one thing that they can have control over is the decisions that they make."

After pointing out that teens tend to make more risky choices when they have other people with them is that she strongly wants to encourage teens to make good decisions, be level headed and drive cautious.

"Don’t fall into peer pressure," Appleman said. "I just encourage them to take that high road, that leadership role and make good solid decisions that are going to protect them."

please put in box:

"100 Deadliest Days of Summer:" This may be the time to relax and plan for summer fun but it is not the time to relax while driving, especially for your teens. Just look at some of the facts:

Motor Vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teens.

Teens have the highest crash rate of any age group.

An average 260 teens are killed in car crashes each month during the summer, an increase of 26% compared with the other months of the year.

60% of teen crashes today are caused by distracted driving.

Surprisingly, the top distraction for teens is other passengers, accounting for 15% of teen driver crashes, compared to 12 % caused by texting or talking on a cell phone.

For every 100,000 Americans under the age of 21, 1.2 people were killed in drunk driving fatalities in 2015.

"Not only are teens themselves more likely to die in car crashes, they also have the highest rates of crash involvement resulting in the deaths of others, including passengers, pedestrians or occupants of other vehicles." www.WESAVELIVES.org

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